AUTHOR=Struk Sylwia , Braem Lukas , Walton Alan , De Keyser Annick , Boyer François-Didier , Persiau Geert , De Jaeger Geert , Gevaert Kris , Goormachtig Sofie TITLE=Quantitative Tandem Affinity Purification, an Effective Tool to Investigate Protein Complex Composition in Plant Hormone Signaling: Strigolactones in the Spotlight JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science VOLUME=9 YEAR=2018 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2018.00528 DOI=10.3389/fpls.2018.00528 ISSN=1664-462X ABSTRACT=

Phytohormones tightly regulate plant growth by integrating changing environmental and developmental cues. Although the key players have been identified in many plant hormonal pathways, the molecular mechanisms and mode of action of perception and signaling remain incompletely resolved. Characterization of protein partners of known signaling components provides insight into the formed protein complexes, but, unless quantification is involved, does not deliver much, if any, information about the dynamics of the induced or disrupted protein complexes. Therefore, in proteomics research, the discovery of what actually triggers, regulates or interrupts the composition of protein complexes is gaining importance. Here, tandem affinity purification coupled to mass spectrometry (TAP-MS) is combined with label-free quantification (LFQ) to a highly valuable tool to detect physiologically relevant, dynamic protein–protein interactions in Arabidopsis thaliana cell cultures. To demonstrate its potential, we focus on the signaling pathway of one of the most recently discovered phytohormones, strigolactones.